ASHES dIVIDE – Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright

arg. don’t you hate it when heroes from your youth aren’t as appealing as they once were? i actually die a little inside when i have to type ASHES dIVIDE (that typeface is something that billy howerdel insisted on. gross.). i die a little more when i listen to this record. i can’t believe how boring it sounds. it’s full of songs like “too late” which don’t challenge the listener in any way with their cushy, cliché, bleeding-heart lyrics and instrumentals that further draw from a cure-meets-ozzy-osbourne pallett (that also served as source-material for a perfect circle, but source-material that they openly mocked themselves for. here, billy’s taking it far too seriously). it’s even more cringe-worthy of a listen when one compares keep telling myself it’s alright to any of APC’s output. “enemies,” the most memorable song from the record, is also the song that sounds closest to howerdel’s work with maynard. howerdel’s singing is intense, the guitars and bass are relentless, and josh freese’s drumming ignites the song with a life and fervor not present on any of the others.

sure, you could argue that it’s unfair to compare this record to howerdel’s previous band’s efforts, but this project begs for comparison to APC because of the people involved. names like danny lohner, josh freese, paz lenchantin and even maynard’s son devo, pop up all over the liner notes, even though howerdel claims to want to distance ASHES dIVIDE from what he’s done before. keep telling myself it’s alright is glaring evidence to the contrary. billy howerdel needs to find a new bag of tricks in order to make his music and songwriting distinct and unique to himself.

Filed under: Album Review , 2008, ASHES dIVIDE, billy howerdel, danny lohner, josh freese, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright, maynard james keenan, paz lenchantin

The Verve – Forth

oh, band reunions. one question that always comes up during these sort of things is whether the reunion is legitimate, or if the members have just temporarily set their grievances aside to make a quick buck travelling along the summer festival circuit. despite the frequency of reunions these days, few bands ever get their shit together long enough to record an album and i would almost insist that they keep it that way (case in point: the smashing pumpkins), but the verve have history on their side. having broken up once before in 1995, the band re-formed in 1997 and released urban hymns, their most beautiful and ambitious album to-date, only to break up once again in 1999. there’s no reason why they can’t pull it off again.

forth begins and satiates the appetite of verve fans by sounding like no time has passed whatsoever: “sit and wonder” is a groovy, dark, drum-and-bass-heavy track, filled with loud distorted guitar strums and reverberating leads. “love is noise” follows, and stands to be one of the most interesting tracks on forth, mainly because of how different it is from the rest of the verve’s catalogue… yet, it still sounds familiar and anthemic. “rather be” is a lovely piano and string-driven song that marks the end of the strong first third of the album, and unfortunately, the beginning of the lacklustre two-thirds (peppered with some great moments). forth’s is simply weighed down by too much fat; a lean, 45-minute verve album would have been lovely, if not slightly out-of-character. certainly the verve have always been about their loose, unfinished, whitmanesque kind of freedom, but their songs were still appropriate lengths and their noisy jams served a purpose. urban hymns, while sometimes painfully sentimental, still had quite a bit of piss and vinegar to it that’s severely lacking from this album. “come on” closed that album with ashcroft screaming “THIS IS A BIG FUCK YOU!!!” over a caucaphony of wah-ing guitars and crashing cymbals, whereas forth’s “appalachain springs” takes a much more laid back approach, choosing to fizzle rather than explode. if  the verve insist on sounding just as they did a decade ago, then they must also bring the same level of conviction to their music that they once had, or else face becoming just another nostalgia-trip.

Filed under: Album Review , 2008, forth, the verve, urban hymns

Beck – Modern Guilt

what is modern guilt? what makes it modern? where does it come from? is it the pressure to do something meaningful? is it the guilt an artist feels when they realize that their contemporaries are making “political” statements and they haven’t made theirs yet? beck doesn’t really do much to answer these questions on modern guilt, but he does have a few hints. much of the album centres on themes of fear (“chemtrails”), defying convention (“walls”), and a lack of belonging (“orphans,” “modern guilt”), but just as he’s decrying the stranglehold that conventions have on modern society, he’s intentionally throwing-back to the 60s, and therefore contradicting himself in the process. while the first few tracks are a good bunch– although inconsistent– it isn’t until the title track that you actually realize that you’re hearing a collaboration between danger mouse and beck. “modern guilt” kicks and bumps along, but does so in a similar vein to another danger mouse collab– the black keys’ “strange times.”  this similarity raises another question: is beck really addressing what’s “modern”? given the highway 61 revisited reference of the album cover, the retro psych/garage-rock atmosphere throughout, and his choosing to work with someone whose body of work consists of mixing old and new styles, beck’s second attempt at being taken seriously (no matter how earnest he might be) seems muddled and confused when he makes an album as contradictory as this one.

Filed under: Album Review , 2008, beck, danger mouse, highway 61 revisited, modern guilt

thanks!

just a quick thanks to the people over at hydrahead records for mentioning my review of stephen brodsky’s new album over on their blog. that quick link increased my daily traffic to more than ten times its normal amount. it’s nice to know people are actually reading this blog, let alone record companies.

Filed under: News , hydrahead, kickassery, stephen brodsky

if i’m around here, then here should be my home

NO AGE

no age/ high places/ abe vigoda @ the horseshoe tavern – july 16, 2008

i was thrilled to be able to see no age play when they came to toronto this past july , they definitely put on a great show.

abe vigoda opened with a blurry set of their blend of “tropical punk.” sounding like vampire weekend on a strict diet of animal collective and sonic youth (which is another way of saying: “sounding like vampire weekend but interesting”), abe vigoda’s set was energetic and noisy to say the least. they were highly entertaining, but i really didn’t connect to much of what they played. their songs weren’t really discernible, but i think i benefited from having heard abe vigoda’s new album skeleton days before the show, because some of the melodies were more apparent to me than they would have been had the show been my first listen. overall i wouldn’t say abe vigoda were anything special, despite the rave reviews their record seems to be getting; they constantly sounded as though they were trying to play over each other and had their songs not been grounded by their excellent drummer, i wouldn’t have had any clue as to what was going on.  in fact, none of the instruments were distinct, save for the drums. so while they did have an energy to them, that energy was lost on me as the songs seemed aimless and boring.

HIGH PLACES

when brooklyn’s high places had taken the stage, the atmosphere of the show took a completely different turn. people were dancing, yelling, having a great time, all for a boy and girl in front of a a digital drum pad and a mess of other electronics (not to belittle high places). their set was fantastic, there was something mesmerizing about the way in which mary pearson delivered her nursery-rhyme like-lyrics, never having to compete with the thundering drums or whatever else rob barber was coming up with. pearson’s tiny sing-song voice makes for an interesting counterpoint to the rather bassy and elaborate compositions of barber.  it was incredible to see him multi-task, being in charge of manipulating the drum sounds with his own live drumming, as well as fiddling with the countless knobs in front of him. what leapt from the speakers was something that resembled a fusion of dancehall, reggae, steelpan, pop and electronic music. the bass from each song was so powerful, i could feel it in my chest. at the same time, beer bottles crashed down from their ledges, and pearson continued to sing along to it all. they are a awesome force, and definitely a band to watch out for.

no age were in top form and although they had their fair share of flubs (like on “teen creeps”), the attitude they have toward their performance makes screw-ups perfectly acceptable. not that they’re lazy or unprofessional, but technicality is clearly not a reason why they play music. they had fun, that much was clear, and they made it their mission that night to make sure the audience was having a great time too. the set they played was a good mix of old and new, drawing from both weirdo rippers and nouns and all of the songs sounded spot-on. they also played a couple of covers in their encore (an encore i really wasn’t expecting… the horseshoe is pretty small… so any attempt to “go offstage” just seems kindof silly): a misfits song, and another song by a band whose name i didn’t catch and probably don’t know.

it was really gratifying to hear them tear through songs that i constantly listen to, particularly the song “here should be my home,” which addresses concerns of community, and displacement. before i had gone to the show, i was kindof worried that it would be just a hipster heaven and really uncomfortable, but from the small community they brought with them, to the larger community they formed while they were in town, no age created a really fun and open environment, free from the elitisms usually associated with “indie” music.

Filed under: Concert Review , 2008, abe vigoda, high places, horseshoe tavern, no age, toronto

Update

things have been a bit slow around here for much longer than i had planned. now that i’m settled after my much-needed vacation, i’m ready to get back to writing for this blog again.

hopefully i’ll be posting a bit more regularly. i’m also going to need to play a bit of catch-up since a lot of music has been released during my down time.

i’m considering making a name-change to the blog as well. i’ve never liked the name, i just named it this because it’s all i could think of at the time. any suggestions would be excellent, although i think i’m on my own for this one.

expect more here soon.

Filed under: News